09-04-2003, 12:15 PM

Okay, here's my delema. I've been offered an amazing deal. My problem is if i go for it, I'd have to sell my Gateway 2ghz. pentium 4 etc . . . My reason for looking into a make is that I will be increasingly involved in graphic design in the next few years. I almost jumped at this opportunity, but I have heard complaints about the g5. Especially with regards to having only one drive slot. So, I figured I'd ask the people who would know the best. What do you think? Any advice? Do you think Apple will include a second drive slot later on, and I should wait for that?

Below is the deal i was offered.

Thanks for your time,
Ryan

The price for the G5 with the monitor is US 2,200.
The package will contain:
1 Apple Power Mac G5
1 Cinema HD Display 23" flat panel,
1 Apple DVI to ADC Adapter,
1 iPod 30GB,
1 Apple pro speakers

The specs for G5:
Dual 2.0GHz G5 processors
1GHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 128-bit SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA
SuperDrive
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
1 FireWire 800 ports
2 FireWire 400 ports
2 USB 2.0 ports
Gigabit Ethernet
AirPort Extreme Ready
BlueTooth Ready
Mac OS X v10.2 a

09-04-2003, 12:39 PM

My initial concern would be the legitimacy of the deal, considering that price is almost 60% less than the already discounted Educational pricing.

09-04-2003, 12:43 PM

Yeah, I am a bit worried about it too, but I found the guy through ebay, and he does have over 1000 positive feedback. He tells me that he knows a few people with employee discounts, and that is how he's able to get stuff so cheap. It's still a little sketchy though. He also said he's been selling macs for about 3 years now. Aside from that, what do you think?

09-04-2003, 01:03 PM

All I can say is Beware, Beware. For there is no such thing as a free lunch.

09-04-2003, 01:10 PM

There are a bunch of issues here.

1. Duh!

Obviously, we would love it if you switched. So wouldn't Apple And come to think of it, so wouldn't you.

2. Complaints :

From what I have read, there has only been 1 reported delivery of a G5 to a consumer, like you or myself. And this report is sketchy at best. There is a lot of hype about G5, and this could be totally not the case. If only one has shipped, question remains : so who is complaining?

2. The Deal Iteslf

When I first was reading through your post, I said to myself, "I wonder if this guy can get more packages like this." You would be utterly insane not to take a deal like that. Read on...

3. The Merchant

Then I saw that your source was an eBay seller. That's when I said to myself, "Damn, that woulda been cool". I don't use eBay. It's not that I haven't before, it's that I have. I avoid eBay as I prefer a second party vender over a third. For more reasons than I can express here.

Conclusion :

An acquisition of such magnitude, that it includes a G5, warrants keeping the purchase legit. You want to keep every last second of Apple support, as this is the first run with a new processor that has not really been proven yet. In the end, I would pass. Mainly because of the eBay stuff. Definately not because of the deal or the machine

Just my 2 cents...

09-04-2003, 01:12 PM

Yeah, I haven't agreed to anything, and even if I decide to buy one, I probably am not going to buy from him. It's way to sketchy. But what do you all think about the new g5's is it better to wait? Do you think they will throw in a second drive bay in a few months? Would it be better to wait a while longer?

Edit: That's a good point Emrys.

09-04-2003, 01:46 PM

If I had the money, I would definitely buy one. But that is just because computers are huge with me. Is this your main machine? Are you going to be relying on it for income? This is completely a personal choice, which many factors weigh upon.

Something about the drive bays. Do you really need an additional drive bay? The drives these days are absolutely huge. Just checked, and you can get 250 GB drives for $230, with free shipping. Less than a dollar a GB is a good deal. You can cut that up into multiple paritions if you need more seperation. I can tell you from experience, right now, I have 4 drives of various sizes dedicated to file storage, and it is not fun to keep up with. I would suggest one large HD, and a firewire/HD combo for additional space later. Of course this doesn't consider backup solutions.

Just looked at the VR display of the G5 : HERE. It doesn't look like their is room in there for another drive bay anyway.

Lot of spare time today

09-04-2003, 01:48 PM

Originally Posted by Elliott

Yeah, I haven't agreed to anything, and even if I decide to buy one, I probably am not going to buy from him. It's way to sketchy. But what do you all think about the new g5's is it better to wait? Do you think they will throw in a second drive bay in a few months? Would it be better to wait a while longer?

Edit: That's a good point Emrys.

I think the G5 is a stunning machine and I'd love to own one, but I think there's also a lot of interest in it simply because it's new, "fastest", best, etc. To be honest, I think a properly configured PowerMac G4 would perform extremely well for you too.

09-04-2003, 02:14 PM

The software I would be running mostly are: Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, Dreamweaver, maybe Flash if I get off my butt and learn it, and InDesign. I'm also interested in learning 3d Studio Max, but that probably won't be in the near future. Maybe a 3d game or two if I can ever find the time to play anything. I had considered the Dual G4 1.25 or whatever it is. But looking on mac.com it seemed to be fairly close to the price of the Dual G5. Are their better places to find good G4 setups? I'm looking for something that will sustain me so I won't have to think about upgrading for a few years. I'm kind of a computer geek. I'm into customizing the appearance of my computer, themes, etc . . .

Also, I have a pentium 4 2ghz. with 250 megs of ram. A geforce ti 4200 graphics card. Are the G4 models really better than that? I'd rather not take a step down the chain

09-04-2003, 02:30 PM

You won't find any deals on Apple product, unless they are used or being discontinues. I believe the price is non-negotiable from Apple. From what I've seen.

09-04-2003, 03:14 PM

Wow, emrys really got the whole run down
I agree with him, ide pass on it for now. Buy one from apple or an authorized apple seller. You will be much happier. Less worried about validity.

09-04-2003, 03:41 PM

Originally Posted by Elliott

The software I would be running mostly are: Photoshop, Illustrator, Painter, Dreamweaver, maybe Flash if I get off my butt and learn it, and InDesign. I'm also interested in learning 3d Studio Max, but that probably won't be in the near future. Maybe a 3d game or two if I can ever find the time to play anything. I had considered the Dual G4 1.25 or whatever it is. But looking on mac.com it seemed to be fairly close to the price of the Dual G5. Are their better places to find good G4 setups? I'm looking for something that will sustain me so I won't have to think about upgrading for a few years. I'm kind of a computer geek. I'm into customizing the appearance of my computer, themes, etc . . .

Also, I have a pentium 4 2ghz. with 250 megs of ram. A geforce ti 4200 graphics card. Are the G4 models really better than that? I'd rather not take a step down the chain

Yes, the dual processor G4 is priced similarly to the dual G5 (with standard configurations from Apple). However, keep in mind that the dual G4 comes with 2 GB of RAM (G5 ships with 512 MB), has 2x160 GB HDD's (G5 ships with one), has additional HDD and optical drive slots, etc.

As for your P4, I would hardly call the Dual G4 a step down. It's obviously difficult to compare performance between PC and Mac machines, but suffice it to say that the dual G4 PowerMac has plenty of power and capability (plus it has the advantage of being a Mac). You won't find many (if any) people on this board who would prefer a P4 system over a PowerMac, be it G4 or G5.

09-05-2003, 12:28 AM

Well, thank you all for your input. It has definately helped put things into better perspective. I'm definately going to hold off on purchasing a Mac for a few months at least, but I assure you I'm going to be switching over eventually. Thank you all for your time

09-05-2003, 07:42 PM

Originally Posted by Elliott

Well, thank you all for your input. It has definately helped put things into better perspective. I'm definately going to hold off on purchasing a Mac for a few months at least, but I assure you I'm going to be switching over eventually. Thank you all for your time

I have a 1G G4 iMac and 2 XP2000 PC's, all have the exact same HD, RAM and Graphics chips. On raw graphical power, i.e in high end games, the PC's give slightly higher frame rates but for all other applications the iMac outperforms them. (I must also add that the iMac is 17" flat panel running 1440x900 whereas the PC's are 17" VDU running 1024x768 which may explain the raw graphics differences)

Note that this is comparing Win98SE with the latest OSX which isn't really a fair comparison, my dad has a 2.5G P4 running XP Home and that feels far more sluggish than the iMac unless I switch off all the eye candy.

The main difference for me is that whereas the PC's are up and down like a ... well you know what I mean ... the iMac has been up for at least 3 months continuous with no problems at all with reliability.

Amen-Moses